The good The bad and The good

Inevitably I have been alternately terrified of bookstores and combing Young Adult sections eagerly for a sign of MY title. This is exciting. The possibility that something I wrote could be for sale on a shelf among other things that other people wrote. Exciting.

Not exciting? I have yet to see it in a single store. My beautifully supportive friend Neesha reminds me that this journey is what I should relish, that I wrote this book and published it and this dream is what I should relish. She's right, of course. But I'd still like to see it in a store. So I'm just saying, if you have a copy, and you happen to be in a bookstore, just kind of prop it up next to the fancy titles, snap a pic, and send it to me. I'll never be the wiser.

On the other side of celebrating, I am starting to feel a little bit giddy about the party I'm throwing next weekend to celebrate all of this... there are temporary tattoos that have just arrived and lobster stock being frozen in preparation and train schedules and flight times reviewed for family arrivals and bathrooms to clean and sheets to wash for house guests. I'm thinking of wearing a feather in my hair, a la Steven Tyler.

I can read.

So. As much as I stand in front of a room full of students every day I am terrified at the thought of being in front of a room full of strangers. Of people looking at me. Compound this terror by asking me to READ my very own raw wide open words and you have last night. I had my very very first reading from This Is What I Want to Tell You at the Jefferson Market Library in Manhattan. I read with some other wonderful writers (Donna Freitas, Sarah MacLean, PE Ryan and Siobhan Vivian all moderated by David Levithan and supported too by the awesome Sarah Ockler in the front row) who were so funny and supportive and the range of voices and stories among us was impressive. I was in good company for my first public appearance and, while my voice and left foot seemed to be shaking uncontrollably, I am assured by my stunning and incredible friends that I seemed confident (I assure you. I was not).

I read Noelle to the world for the first time and what buoyed me up, what steadied my voice and amazed me and carried her out to all of these ears in the audience was the faces of my other family in the back row, the Vermont Stones who are not my relation by blood but by all other ties, the poet and musician Vermont Stones there reminding me of all the stories Ive told in 20 years and giving me strength... two beautiful Bard faces who looked up at me and gave me confidence, two Emma Willard faces who said yes we remember high school and we're here with you, and faces new to my life who still said we're here, tell us Noelle's story.

So I did. A little bit of it. And I feel sort of brave now. And so ridiculously thankful.

This Is What I Want to Tell You. Available today.

My family is my collective hero. This is the conversation I imagine happened at my brother's house this morning.

Dad: Hey Ruthie, your Aunt Heather wrote a book. It comes out today.
Ruth: That's awesome, Dad. Gimme five!

I was supposed to interview Sarah Maclean yesterday

But I messed up. Brought to you by the Debs Blog tour, my friend and neighbor, Sarah Maclean! Sarah Maclean is a fellow Brooklyn-ite who loves The West Wing, is an amazing bible of book publicity knowledge and wants to be a Romance writer when she grows up... wait. She is a Romance writer. Her debut novel The Season is out this month and it has all of the details-- intrigue, scandal, gossip to keep you turning the pages. And o, the costumes. 'The same 5 Questions we Always Ask'...



1. What is your preferred writing brain food?
dried apricots and pretzels. oh, who am i kidding? cupcakes.

2. What is the soundtrack to your debut novel?
The Waltz Symphony Orchestra plays Johann Strauss, Jr.'s most famous waltzes. Nothing gets you in the Regency mood like Strauss. Even though he didn't come until a few decades later.

3. Describe your perfect writing space.
I have an office in my apartment, but the juices flow best when I'm sitting at our dining room table. I'm out in the open, with husband and dog milling about, sitting at a table covered in books and paper, but I'm really happy there, always.

4. Tell us about one of the secondary characters in your debut novel. How did he/she come to life?
Nicola Salisbury is one of Alex's longest-standing friends, not a best friend, but one of those people who you know will just always be in your life. She's smart and fun and isn't at all interested in what the rest of the ton thinks of her. She's the only one of my characters who is directly modeled on a person I know...a dear friend whom I've always admired for her self-awareness and self-confidence. I wanted readers of The Season to see a character with that kind of pluck. She's one of my favorite parts of the novel.

5. What did/will you do on your launch day?
Well, as many know, my launch day kind of snuck up on me! The books just appeared on shelves a month early...so I squee!d on my blog and started a "Spot The Season" map to track where it's been seen/bought/read...and then took a walk to my local B&N to visit with the nearest copies.

Learn more about Sarah and her work here.
And go buy The Season! Here or here.

Something strange is happening

Something very strange. I am, somehow, impossibly and thrillingly, becoming a writer who might be read by strangers, a writer whose book hits shelves and tables and UPS delivered boxes in places I've never seen... I can't quite hold on to the reality of this though I know quite certainly that I've imagined it for more than twenty years. This Is What I Want to Tell You has just been spotted at Borders on 33rd street. This means it is not a trick... the story of Nadio and Noelle is out there in the world. I hope you want to read it. I mean hell, I might just go read it again. Just so I know its real.

Why Saundra Mitchell is like Mickey Rourke

Last night the brilliant Sean Penn won a well deserved Oscar for his work in Milk and he said something like "no disrespect to my fellow nominees but god bless Mickey Rourke". This is kind of how I feel about Saundra Mitchell, the latest guest on the Debs Blog Tour. Saundra Mitchell's debut novel Shadowed Summer is out this month. It is a carefully crafted, lovely, haunting, thrilling novel about ghosts, the boundaries of friendships and family secrets. Saundra is a filmmaker, a super mom, and perhaps most importantly, she has the biggest heart in the publishing world. She is a cheerleader for her fellow writers. She is unfailingly supportive, unbelievably generous, boundlessly kind and just straight up hilarious. You should read her book for all of these reasons but mostly because it is just plain good. Suspense. Sensual detail. Truth. For Saundra Mitchell, "my brother" on this debut novel journey, 'the same five questions we always ask'.



1. What is your preferred writing brain food?

I just need cocola! Everything else is negotiable.

2. What is the soundtrack to your debut novel?

You can actually listen to my entire soundtrack for Shadowed Summer for free on my website! It includes songs by k's choice, Kelly Clarkson, Beausoleil, Fountains of Wayne, and more!

3. Describe your perfect writing space.

I'm pretty sure that ideally, what I need is a 10X10 box with no windows, no doors, and no Internet access. That would be perfect to actually, you know, get some writing done.

4. Tell us about one of the secondary characters in your debut novel. How did he/she come to life?

In the beginning, Ben Duvall was there, but he was extraneous. He had a purpose to serve, he served it, and that was that! After lots of revision, I still had a line in the book that said, "That's all there is to Ben."

My editor left a particularly exclamatory note there pointing out it was WAY too true. It wasn't until late drafts- probably the very last one, that Ben got to be an entire person.


5. What did/will you do on your launch day?

I gave away Extremely Haunted, Somewhat Haunted, and Slightly Possessed Gift Bags on my website to celebrate my debut!

Learn all about Saundra here... and, even more importantly, buy Shadowed Summer here.

The Best Kind

The stories I tell are inspired, always, by truth. In each character I create, slip the details, whether odd habits or favorite songs or crooked smiles, of people I’ve known somewhere. I think I am imagining and most of the time that imagination is infected with memory. I know that J and M have become part of characters—J in the devotion with which Parker prepares his meals and the careful, unspoken dedication Nadio has to his family. M in the strength with which Keeley fights and the truth Nadio searches for. And now I am writing a story that has impossibly and unexpectedly become a love story and once again I think of them. And I miss Sunday mornings in a sunny kitchen when J made coffee and M leaned on the counter and they planned a day and let all of us in on this perfect pair they’d made. I hear rumours that today is a special day for them and anyway, it’s a Sunday morning and they’re on my mind.

Erin Dionne likes the Red Sox but you still must read her book

Erin Dionne wrote a book called Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies (which you can, and should, and will be so glad that you did, of course, buy here) that I wish every girl I know could have read just before entering high school… why, you ask? This book is especially important to me because, well, it’s about the work I do. I wrote a thesis once, when I was an undergraduate at Bard College, and it was about (in a nutshell) how girls can learn to tell our own stories out loud and on paper to each other and, in so doing, save confidence esteem and strength so often lost on the eve of entering high school. Models Don’t Eat Chocolate Cookies’ Celeste tells her story, giving voice to this quiet confidence in faith. And Erin Dionne is behind all of this. She’s a baseball fan, mom to a beautiful new baby girl, married to a terrifically supportive husband, teacher of writing, promoter of fellow writers and all around amazing woman. For Erin Dionne, ‘the same five questions we always ask’.



1. What is your preferred writing brain food?
Chocolate chip cookies. YUM!

2. What is the soundtrack to your debut novel?
There are two original songs for the book, "Ruby Red Hair" and "Dreaming Without You" that my friend, Dann Russo, wrote. You can even download them from my website!

3. Describe your perfect writing space.
In my make-believe world, it'd be a room with a wall of bookshelves, a view of the ocean, and no Internet access.

In reality--it's my dining room table, a view of the neighborhood, and lots of snacks at hand.

4. Tell us about one of the secondary characters in your debut novel. How did he/she come to life?
Couscous, a chihuahua, was inspired by a story that a high school friend of mine told. I filed it away, and as I was working on MODELS, I decided that I needed a little more levity in the story. So Millie got a dog...with a lot of issues.

5. What did/will you do on your launch day?
Hang out with the dog and the baby, head over to Barnes and Noble to stalk people in the section, and pop open some champagne!

Download Dann Russo's songs and learn more about Erin here.

Sunday, a day of writing

I try to keep to one rule a week, and that is that I write on Sundays. This happens in a public place with a large cups of coffee, floor to ceiling windows that beg distraction, baked good breaks, and the indispensable Darci M, my writing right hand. Today, I feel especially ready because I woke up early, ate a waffle, did some yoga, had a perfect cup of this



and, maybe most importantly, have figured out how to outline. The story is in place. It looks like this



Im ready.

Behind the scenes in Houston, Texas. That's where Jenny Moss is.

Author Jenny Moss is my second guest in the internal Debs Blog Tour, conceived by the inceredible debut writers here. Jenny's novel, Winnie's War, came out this month and you should buy it now. Here. Why, you ask? Because Jenny Moss is a multi-talented writer who can put you in the midst of the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic or a 1960's folk festival (more on this later). She can teach you creative writing and she used to work for NASA. That's why. Winnie's War transports you to a tragic moment in our history and yet is ultimately redemptive. Most importantly, Jenny's storytelling will wrap you up. And so, for Jenny Moss, the Jane magazine inspired 'same five questions we always ask'.



1. What is your preferred writing brain food?
Chocolate and diet coke or coffee

2.What is the soundtrack to your debut novel?
I intentionally didn't listen to music when I was writing. Winnie's War is set in 1918, so listening to my CDs would take me mentally out of the time period.

3.Describe your perfect writing space.
Crowded restaurant or my quiet bedroom

4.Tell us about one of the secondary characters in your debut novel. How did he/she come to life?
Mr. Levy was in my mind from the beginning. When I was a child, the father of a friend played chess with me. As an adult, when I looked back at those moments, I was touched he spent that time with me. The two of us didn't have the close friendship of Mr. Levy and Winnie, but out of that memory came the character of Mr. Levy.

5.What did/will you do on your launch day?
I'm having a book launch party at B&N on the Saturday following release. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do on release day. :)


Read more about Jenny and her work here!